


Vanus Galerion's New Robes

by ebsmith



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls Online
Genre: Crushes, Cute, Everybody Loves Sotha-Sil, Fluff, Headcanon, Humor, M/M, Mannimarco Is A Sap Around Vanus, Psijic Order, Silly, They Aren't A Train Wreck, Vanus Is An Arcane Prodigy, Young Love, tight clothes, yet anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:53:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21602524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ebsmith/pseuds/ebsmith
Summary: Vanus tells his best friend some good news.Featuring my headcanon for why the mage's robes in ESO are so form fitting: Because Vanus likes it that way!
Relationships: Vanus Galerion/Mannimarco
Kudos: 23





	Vanus Galerion's New Robes

“Marco look!”

Mannimarco is sitting in his study, legs crossed, reading a very thick book. He looks up at the call of his friend and his mind blinks out for a second. Huh. Their “gray cloaks” were certainly elegant and professional enough for any occasion, from crawling a sewer to attending a prince’s coronation, though he doesn’t think he’s ever seen them quite so... he pulls himself together.

“Ah Vanus, congratulations! They are quite... snug aren’t they?” Well mostly together.

“Oh yes! I had the tailor make them tight as she could. I love them like this! Truly like a second skin. Like wearing the air itself in fact!”

Vanus’s grin is so beautiful here, so full of pride and joy. As it ought to be, Mannimarco knows. The winning of full Psijic status after only two years as an initiate was an achievement almost unheard of. Vanus catches the odd look on his friend's face though, and that grin wavers.

“Mannimarco? Oh, you don’t think they’re... inappropriate, do you?”

“Huh? NO!” Mannimarco shakes himself out of it. “No Vanus. You look wonderful. They suit you,” he smiles. “Really.” And Vanus beams back at him, full of light once again. 

“I’m glad you think so,” Vanus whispers, suddenly shy. Then just as quick, that mercurial shyness is gone. “Oh, the Ritemaster said something about placing my name in the Oghma?”

“Yes Vanus,” Mannimarco grins at the mention of the Book. “Welcome to Immortality, of a sort. Your name listed among all the Psijics who have ever lived and died, never to be forgotten and never to be erased.”

“Ha!” Vanus laughs at that, exuberant again, before quieting himself - to Mannimarco’s slight disappointment. “I must go then. I will see you later all right?” And with that promise, he skips off to the College.

Mannimarco stares at his still open door for a long while after that, before catching himself with yet another shake of his head and very deliberately getting back to the tome on his lap. ‘Vanus Galerion, you really are something else.'

* * *

“All fully-fledged members of the Order may choose where their name appears in the Book of Records. And please," Glenadir implores, "do not ask to add your name next to Sotha-Sil’s, that page is full enough already!”

“Haha - no. I... may I look for a moment?“

“Certainty,” the Relicmaster says kindly, wandering back to his original position at the lectern by the door. Vanus doesn't think he has ever seen that old mer move from that spot by choice. “Take your time.”

He turns back to the Oghma. An enormously thick book for sure, though certainly not big enough to hold all the names of every Psijic who ever lived and died! 'Then again,' he giggles to himself, 'the Psijics – excuse me, We Psijics hah! – did live a long time didn’t we?'

He flips through the book carefully, the pages fine and impossibly thin, made from some odd kind of parchment. A warm golden cream color with a translucent look, though he could not see the ink of the names from the opposite sides of the page.

He snorts as he comes across Master Sotha's name, written in his even mechanical hand, with only a little flourish on the tails. The names of hundreds of others were a cloud of script around it, in various sizes and styles of print. He wondered indeed how they all managed to fit in that space and remain legible.

He looks for his friend's name and finds it, somehow knowing exactly what page to turn to without asking. Not the first page for his pompous friend then? He blinks, as to his surprise, Mannimarco’s name simply appeared on the first empty page, a few others he did not recognize scattered above and below it. 

He is disappointed to find that Iachesis’s name is listed in the dead center of the book, closely spaced with a few others he again did not recognize.

“I have a question.”

“Yes, Vanus?”

“Ah, I don’t suppose my name can be in two places at once, can it?“

To his annoyance, the Relicmaster only chuckles knowingly at him. “Ah the sentiments of youth! You are not the first one to ask that and will by no means be the last, but no. Only one entry per soul, my dear. I’m sorry.”

“... All right, I’m ready.”

The old mer says nothing, instead shuffling over to the cluttered desk nearby the book’s cherry wood stand. He pulls out a simple pen and black ink pot and turns toward Vanus. “Here you go boy, and don’t worry about space,” he chuckles, “the Oghma will give you all you need.”

Well there goes his one excuse for which name to choose. At least the Relicmaster doesn't seem in a hurry, leaning against the edge of the desk lost in his own thoughts, just as he was every other time Vanus had seen him by the door.

He takes a moment to reflect on those most important to him in his new life. He thinks of Iachesis the Ritemaster, his mentor, who he loved so very much. The one who had given him a place worthy to call his home and who seemed to embody every kind of good in the world. He thinks of Heliand. The first, but by no means the last, to look at him and see greatness instead of his worthless heritage.

However, it is with a different kind of hope for his life and his future - childish though it may be - that Vanus Galerion places his name beneath Mannimarco’s own, his hand in the careful and deliberate style of someone who was still not used to holding a pen correctly.

**Author's Note:**

> Vanus Galerion is "The Quintessential Mage", Of course he'd wear "the air itself" if he could get away with it:D  
> I don’t remember exactly where I heard it, but TES mages are supposed to prefer robes because regular clothes, or at least armor, restricts casting somehow. The psijic style page for the gloves even mentions being fingerless for dexterity. So now I'm imagining that ancestor silk is basically natural fiber spandex.
> 
> About Vanus's implied poor penmanship: I'm imagining that going from the social bottom to the top as it were, he's gonna struggle for a looong time to unlearn more than a few bad habits, and writing coherently with a dip pen, much less elegantly, takes some getting used to.


End file.
